| Baptism is not just some church custom or family tradition. Scripture clearly teaches that Baptism is one of the most glorious sermons about pure grace and God's wonderful love to save. A tiny baby is helpless to take care of himself. A loving parent nurtures and protects, cradles and comforts, soothes and sings to that child. Our heavenly Father does even more! He creates new life in a baby that looks so alive, but in reality is spiritually dead. Scripture declares that by nature we are born dead! We have inherited more than just our earthly parents hair color or body build. We have inherited a sinful nature and are born dead in sins (See Psalm 51:5 and Eph. 2:1). A spiritually dead corpse is unable to do anything. Yet God works a miracle at the font. Paul says in verse 4 of Eph. 2, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.". Through Holy Baptism, God uses water and the Word to create a new birth, a second birth. This water of Baptism washes away our sins (see Acts 2:38-39 and Acts 22:16) and dresses us up in the perfect righteousness of Jesus (see Galatians 3:27). We are washed clean and dressed in Christ's robes and so can stand before the holy God as his precious children. The Scriptures are filled with many wonderful allusions to the power of baptism. A few references for your personal reading would include John 3:3-5; Romans 6:1-7; 1 Peter 3:20-21; Titus 3:5-7.
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